Let me step up this art contest a little. Now, it's still open until I release chapter 12, which will be anywhere from three days to a week or two, so keep your eyes peeled for new chapters. I'll go over the art contest rules one last time. I want a headshot of what you believe Ashlyn looks like with another canon character or your own OC if you'd like. The character that I think looks the best will be the cover page of my story and will have their OC featured in my story as it goes on down the road…

**BUT**

I also do animations, and I'm looking for voice actors and co-animators for a YouTube series as well as a preview for the next part of this story (Hetalia: What Was Done). Whoever enters this art contest can send me a video at my google contact of theonesongwriter0. All I want in this video is your experience with animating, your knowledge of Hetalia, and your review on how the story is so far. The person who wins gets to be a co-animator and a voice actor if wanting.

I'm a beginner at animating and I'm being honest. I'm fourteen and I probably shouldn't have wathced Hetalia, but I watch the dubbed version (kill me pls), which cuts out most of the cussing. I use a program called "Pencil 2D", which is a frame-by-frame animation process, but I think it will be worth it in the meantime. If you know of a better program (preferably free) that I do not know of, let me know please.

Have a good day

.

"Wait, what?!"

Lovino sighed. "I wish what I said-a wasn't true, bella… but it is."

Ashlyn felt weak, leaning back against the World Summit building and leaned her head back, trying to take it all in. She felt like she was at fault, yet she knew that she really wasn't. Trying to work out plans in her head, she lost her train of thought when Romano put a hand on her shoulder, trying to comfort her.

"I'm-a sorry, ragazza. I wish I could help."

"How do you know this?" Ashlyn's voice cracked as she spoke, looking up at Romano and staring into his amber eyes with the ferocity of one of America's pet eagles.

"Because the scone bastard had talked to me alone and made me promise something." Romano looked away as he blushed a little.

"W-what did he promise you?" By the way he was acting, Ashlyn almost didn't want to know.

"Ahem." Romano cleared his throat. "H-he made me promise to protect you if he leaves."

"CAC! (SHIT!) I knew he would pull something like that I just knew it!" Ashlyn practically threw Romano off of her and started pacing.

"Whoa, bella. What's wrong?" Romano picked himself up and went after Ashlyn.

Ashlyn whipped around to face Romano, her eyes watering. Romano stopped and looked at her, both of them locking eyes for a few seconds before she continued. "He always does this when it's bad. If he forces another country to make a promise. He tried doing that with France a long, long time ago."

"So, he's telling the truth…"

Ashlyn nodded. "Is ea. (Yes) I… I just…" She fell to her knees, her blonde hair covering her eyes. It was just too much to comprehend is such a short period of time. She felt as if it were her fault and that she was able to prevent it somehow. She clenched her fists so tightly that her knuckles turned white and her nails dug into her hands, which bled onto the ground.

She felt her hands being picked up off the ground and looked up to see Romano holding her hands and wiping the blood off of them. His face was a bit red as he did so, but Ashlyn found it a little cute.

"Calm down, ragazza. You and I both know that the Scone Bastard seems to be able to-a take care of himself." Lovino looked up at Ashlyn, their golden eyes meeting.

"Y-yeah, I guess you're right." Ashlyn broke eye-contact and looked at the ground, where there was the smallest of bloodstains on the ground in front of her. Should I? She thought to herself.

Before she even had any time to do anything, Lovino wrapped his arms around her in a hug. She felt both her face and his face grow hot. Ashlyn eventually gave up and hugged him back, burying her head in his shoulder. Lovino only hugged her tighter to comfort her. Ashlyn unburied her head and rest her chin on his shoulder. When she opened her eyes, she saw Prussia standing outside the door staring at them.

"WEST! WEEESSSTT! YOU HAVE TO COME SEE THIS!" Gilbert screamed and ran inside to grab his little brother.

Both Lovino and Ashlyn pushed off of each other. Falling to the ground in laughter as well as embarrassment, both of them laughing as well as blushing really red in the process. They each got up and ran inside, temporarily dismissing the depressing fact about Arthur for a few moments.

That is until they got inside.

.

As Romano and Ashlyn had gone outside, Arthur knew what Lovino was going to tell her. He almost got up to interrupt them, but he almost fell over when he felt a pain in his right leg. His bright green eyes scanned the room frantically to see if any of the other countries had seen his spasm of pain. When he assumed the coast was clear, he then sat down, looking on as the other countries investigated Russia. He also watched as Prussia snuck out to see what the two of them were doing, but he focused back on the other countries antagonizing Russia.

"What were you two doing?" Korea pointed a finger at his chest, and he was probably the only one in the room with the balls to do that.

"I wasn't doing anything. I took a nap, then she found me and I woke up. She then fell asleep and I went off to pick sunflowers." Ivan's voice depleted as he continued on, each country making weird looks at each other, not believing him.

"What caused you to run away, aru?" China walked up from behind Korea, shoving him off to the side.

"I'd rather not discuss that, da?" Ivan said with a remarkably cheerful voice, but everyone could see a dark aura slowly forming around him as he became more and more annoyed.

It's amazing how calm he looks but on the inside we all know he's twisted up, Arthur thought. He elevated his leg onto the chair beside him, which instantly caused a pain in his spine, which then caused him to freeze as if he couldn't move.

America looked over and saw that Britain wasn't looking right, and that he had an odd expression on his face. "Dude, England, you okay?"

Arthur looked right and tried his best to straighten his posture up, but slightly winced in pain as he did so. He only smiled slightly. "Yeah I'm fine."

"Dude, you never smile at me…" Alfred walked over and pulled out the chair that Arthur's foot was on, not realizing it was there.

When his foot was sent falling to the floor, the pain went from Arthur's leg straight to his back. He jumped and cringed in pain, falling onto the table. With the sudden imbalance of weight, the table tipped, sending him to the floor in a huge racket. He instantly curled up and sat there while the other countries noticed and abandoned Ivan to take a look at England.

"G-go away… God-d-damn wankers…." England murmured as he pushed various hands away from him.

"You're not fine!" Alfred countered back at the Englishman, who looked up at him, then looked away. "You aren't fine damn it! You and I both know it! Does lying on the ground not being able to move fine?!"

Arthur looked at his little brother, knowing he was right. "I-I need to rest… just leave me here…."

"No!" Alfred was practically screaming now. "We need to take you to a hospital!"

"A-Al-"

"WEST! WEEESSSTT! YOU HAVE TO COME SEE THIS!" Gilbert screamed as he ran back into the doorway, but stopped as he saw what was happening. Everyone remained silent as they heard the running footsteps of Lovino and Ashlyn as well as their giggles as they turned the corner. As Ashlyn turned the corner, she stopped, causing Lovino to run into her from behind.

There was a very odd silence as Ashlyn stood there, trying to see what was in the center of their circle.

England struggled to sit up as he looked over Denmark's hair. "Sorry for the inconvenience, but do you still have a copy of my car keys in your pocket?"